


Pinned In Place

by Qwerty_2poynt0



Category: Aurora - Red (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Erin is a Rude Boy, Nonbinary Character, Other, Pining, Unresolved Romantic Tension, garden party, i think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:27:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27834511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Qwerty_2poynt0/pseuds/Qwerty_2poynt0
Summary: There was something about how they pinned the white rose to their lapel as effortlessly as someone runs their fingers through their hair. The way it obediently stayed in place. How their hands seemed to instantly stop concerning themselves with the flower as though they knew they'd done it right on the first try. The elegance and confidence of such a thing. It pulled at him, and he had no choice but to hover closer.Erin is bad at feelings and Champ is just tryna enjoy the eclipse party.
Relationships: Erin Ruunaser/Champion | Monster Hunter
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7





	Pinned In Place

**Author's Note:**

> This AU is very ill-defined, I just wanted an excuse to have Erin and Champ at the same party.

It was the surety with which they placed their white rose brooch on their chest that caught Erin's attention.

Even in the moment he found it so ridiculous. Yet there was something about how they pinned the party favor to their lapel as effortlessly as someone runs their fingers through their hair. The way it obediently stayed in place. How their hands seemed to instantly stop concerning themselves with the flower as though they knew they'd done it right on the first try. The elegance and confidence of such a thing. It pulled at him, and he had no choice but to hover closer.

They seemed to glide through the garden beneath the canvas of glittering stars, phasing in and out of conversations effortlessly. A twinge of jealously panged out from Erin's chest as he kept glancing over at them. Not that he needed to be jealous, he was perfectly good at carrying a conversation and making a good impression. Why wouldn't he be? He was the son of Galen Ruunaser, of course he was good at those things. Of course he was. It wasn't the ease and poise they carried themself with, he had plenty of ease and poise about him. He was the very picture of poised ease and easy poise. There was nothing they had that he didn't have already. Well, aside from the cloud of snowy white hair that seemed to float about them in such an ethereal manner, but Erin liked his own hair just fine thank you very much. They didn't even have... Well, he couldn't really tell if they had any tattoos, now could he? They were wearing a suit jacket with a high collar button-up and a floor length skirt, of course he couldn't be sure if they had any tattoos. He couldn't be sure if they had _legs._ Well, of course they had legs, but for all he knew they could be wearing roller skates and no one would be the wiser.

He was starting to feel exponentially more ridiculous and he hadn't even approached them yet.

But he refused to back down. He would not be beaten by some random..... whoever-this-was at Ms. Alinua's eclipse soiree. His agitation grew until he couldn't help fidgeting with his own brooch; a black prince snapdragon. More importantly though, he became so lost in examining them that it took him a good few seconds to realize that he was staring. And that they noticed.

"Did you want my attention?" Their eyebrows scrunched and they looked a touch wary as they stepped closer to him.

"I... What are you doing here?" Yes, he just needed answers. Once he knew more he could figure this one out.

"I was... invited?" Their face screwed up a touch in a few places and Erin started to feel judged, which he refused to accept.

"I've never seen you at a party like this, how were you invited?"

"My lady is on good terms with Ms. Alinua's patrician," They leaned away slightly, their expression beginning to close off. "What right might you have to be here?"

Oh. Absolutely not. This would not stand.

"My father just so happens to be the chief ambassador of Their Excellence Asera, and I happen to be a scholar of great renown thank you very much."

Their icy blue eyes gave him a once-over and now Erin _knew_ they were judging him! He stood straighter, pushing back his shoulders and holding onto their eyes. Apparently, they were about as keen on backing down from whatever this was as Erin.

"Erin, you can't possibly have gotten into a fight with the _only_ new person at this party." 

The two of them snapped their heads around to see Alinua looking between the two of them. She seemed quite put upon.

"I'm terribly sorry m'am." The stranger said immediately before Erin even got a chance to take a full breath. "I seem to have plucked some kind of nerve with this one."

Erin glared at him and Alinua just rolled her eyes. "That one's got a very delicate ego. You two will be fine if you don't _cause a scene_." She turned a steely gaze to Erin as though _he_ were the cause of this!

"Worry not, madam." Erin smiled sweetly. "The only scene tonight will be the one above our heads."

"Alright then. Please, enjoy the party."

She departed from them, mixing and mingling with her other guests. The two's eyes once again found one another's.

"Care to question me some more?" Erin felt a surge in his bloodstream, but didn't react aside from the twitch in his eyebrows.

"Not in particular."

"I'll be going then."

"Feeling that outclassed?" Erin's voice lilted as he needled them. That got a reaction. A twitch in their brow not unlike the one they'd just elicited from him.

"So desperate for my company you'd try to get a rise out of me?"

Erin pressed his lips together as he made a concerted effort to keep the sudden flush from his face.

"Not desperate. Vindictive."

"Well, you admit to your faults I suppose."

"Oh and you don't? Do you have _any?"_

"None so obvious as yours."

Erin wasn't sure how it happened, but once he came back to himself, he realized he'd pulled them in scarcely two inches away from his face by the perfectly pinned brooch. They looked at him in stunned silence for a moment before glancing down to where he still gripped their rose.

"That's a gift."

Erin growled in the back of his throat and broke away, stepping off and looking anywhere but them. They seemed to take this as an admission of defeat, because they walked off to go enjoy the party. Meanwhile, Erin felt like his night had been thoroughly wrecked.

-+-

He spent the majority of the party from then on deliberately avoiding them. If he caught a flash of moonlit white hair or the low circles of golden light spreading from the water and table lanterns bounced off a long skirt and a white rose, he veered away. A roiling tangle of stomach flipping emotions would rise up at the thought of them, and he didn't want to know what looking would do.

When the eclipse viewing started he skirted the crowd, keeping his eyes squarely on the moon. A few people talked quietly, and with the soft strings playing off in the distance, the atmosphere soothed all of Erin's frayed nerves as he watched the shadow carefully unfolding across the moon.

The eclipse was about halfway through when his eyes fell back to the garden at just the wrong time. There they were, and his stomach lurched, his heart making a single pronounced pulse.

He found himself unable to return his eyes to the moon. He realized their pin was still just slightly off from when he'd gripped onto it earlier and something in him felt quite unreasonably guilty. It was just a tilted pin.

Once again, they noticed him staring.

Neither one moved as their eyes locked from across the tulip beds, but Erin saw them scrutinizing him once again. He tried silently making it clear just how little he cared for _that,_ and for a moment he thought it worked but... no. Now they were examining him more softly somehow. It put him on edge. He felt so... exposed. Even though really, he'd hardly given anything away. What was it about this person? What made him this way around them?

Seemingly satisfied, they returned their gaze to the sky. If they noticed how much they left Erin _reeling_ , they didn't show it.

-+-

No new developments arose until the shadow began completing its departure from the moon. With the hour running late and the main event of the party nearly past, everyone was getting themselves ready to head out. Saying their last pleasantries and taking their last strolls about the grounds. Erin secluded himself in the rose bushes. The returning moonlight washed over the outstretching edges of the petals and made the shadowed leaves glow from above. Some part of him didn't want the party to end, which surprised him considerably because he'd usually be one of the first to leave, taking time to himself in the carriage as he waited for his father to neatly wrap up whatever business he'd been in. As his eyes trailed across the roses, he chalked it up to the atmosphere of the garden. He'd never realized just how welcoming plant life could be.

Red roses, yellow roses, purple roses, black roses, white-

He stopped in his tracks and looked up at the individual attached to the still-just-slightly-askew white rose. The two stood in silence for a second. Erin couldn't be sure what came over him, but he slowly reached out and carefully readjusted the brooch as though it were made of true delicate petals instead of wood painted in glossy acrylic.

"... I hadn't thought anything was wrong with it." They said, and oh. Oh did that _ever_ stir something up in Erin.

"What is with you?" His voice lacked that same bite that he'd originally approached with, and he found that he liked it.

"Me? I'm only going about my business. What is with _you_?"

"I..." Usually, when lost for words, Erin felt either annoyance or consternation, but with this person, he only felt foolish and tense. "Can't I just be curious?"

"Curious? All of this is you being curious?"

"I- Was it not obvious? I've been asking questions and making observations, what else could it be?"

They stared at him with the strangest look on their face for what felt like the longest time. Until their face brightened alongside the moon and they started laughing softly. Erin's heart thrummed at the warm, rolling sound that was over far too soon, and stood still and pliant as this radiant living moonbeam reached for Erin's own brooch and adjusted it slightly.

"I figured it was fine for the longest time, but you're clearly quite particular."

As the smooth, refined touch left his chest, Erin slowly started piecing together a picture.

"I'm particular with more than pins. I... I like you."

Something about those three words just made Erin's heart feel raw. This person, the way they _existed_ , they... they riled him somehow. Drew him. They didn't even realize they were doing it.

"... You're alright."

And with that they left him. And he stayed pinned in place until well after they'd made their departure from the garden. He couldn't return to his father's carriage until he'd gotten permission from Ms. Alinua to take a white rose home with him. She seemed surprisingly delighted to have someone make away with one of her flowers, but all Erin could really think about was the blithe smile that steeple of striking serenity gave him as they told him he was 'alright'. Really, why should he ever give so much thought to someone who simply described him as 'alright'? Why should he want a physical reminder of their meeting? Why should he keep remembering the way they pinned their brooch in place and adjusted his? It was wholly unreasonable.

He held the rose up to the moonlight and wondered if he'd see them again soon.

**Author's Note:**

> I know they have not met in canon and we have not even seen double digits of pages where Champ is present, but I like shipping and I like Champ, okay! And I also hope you liked this~
> 
> ♡A few fun reminders♡  
> \- You chuck a tip at me on **[my Ko-fi](https://ko-fi.com/starryjam)** if you feel so inclined  
> \- I have **commissions** available, if you wanna message me about that on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/StarsInAJamJar) or [Tumblr](https://stars-in-a-jam-jar.tumblr.com/).  
> \- And last but most certainly not least: I would be _ecstatic_ if you plunked so much as a ':)' down in the **comments,** it really **makes my day** knowing what I write makes people happy and that I make good stuff, so yea!  
> That's all from me. Thanks so so much for reading, and have a super shimmery day~♡


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